DALLAS — Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico on Wednesday said he opposed transgender student-athletes competing in girls’ sports “if it endangers safety or fairness,” reversing course on previous positions he took while in the Texas House opposing restrictions on trans athletes.
James Talarico could’ve literally said nothing about transgender issues and focused on economic, the current failed systems, lack of safety nets. Hostile sentiments towards Trans Americans are already fairly high, this dumb fucker didn’t have to add fuel to the fire. It didn’t occur to him to direct energy towards things that matter: Dismantling the federally protected and elected ring of pedophiles, billionaires, and corporations that are working together towards a very nasty purpose. You know, that major goal using Project 2025 as a template to dismantle democracy; to make working class people have no choice but work, keep us scared, desperate, and sick. They might not win it since there are more of us than them, but, we still need to stand up to these chuds.
The real answer should have that, of the 345 million Americans that are are facing homelessness, water shortages, diminishing crop yields, runaway inflation, countless consumer scams, souring gas prices, collapsing education systems and infrastructure, this is an issue that affects maybe a dozen people.
Democratic candidates need to stop bending the knee to fascism for votes and instead attract voters by pointing out all of the horrible economic and foreign policy decisions the Republicans have enabled Trump to implement.
this is fascism? seems like a bit of a leap
or are you trying to get people to not vote for dems over this one issue
foolish that’s how you got trump remember
Every fascist needs scapegoats to blame societal problems on; transgender people are often chosen as scapegoats by modern Western far-right parties. Every weasel word used in place of ‘fascist’ serves to normalize the degradation of society with the racism, xenophobia, and bigotry that are hallmarks of the far-right.
Of course the Democrats should be the ones to hold the House and Senate after the midterms if possible to turn Trump into as much of a lame duck as possible, but Democratic candidates should not stoop to the level of Republicans on civil rights issues merely to attain a handful of additional bigoted voters.
Especially since this won’t pick up a single republican vote. Talarico did this for no gain whatsoever.
transgender people are often chosen as scapegoats by modern Western far-right parties.
Not even just modern unless you use a broad definition of modern that include’s Nazis in Germany in the leadup to WWII+Holocaust.
This one issue of ‘let’s kill you and your friends.’ Sure lemme just go ahead and ignore that.
Unfortunately that’s clearly not enough.
So, how many times do they need to back the bus over vulnerable minorities after throwing them under there?
Which is basically never. He’s trying to walk the fence and appeal to everyone.
Just going to get dogpiled by Matt Walsh types screaming “What is a Woman?!” from the cheap seats.
If it risks safety or fairness
Ah, the classic meaningless political statement.
I’ve seen people elsewhere handwave this as “playing politics” since it’s Texas and all, but there are ways to cede ground to people you’re trying to sway without completely fucking throwing an entire marginalized community under the bus once again. Yeah, using flowery wishy-washy language provides a convenient out if you put all of the weight on the word “if” but reading between the lines shows that we’re just a political playing chip on the best of days and that you also just want us dead all the same on the worst of days.
Politicians gonna pol.
But they don’t have to like this.
Dignifying this “issue” with any stance is the wrong move. Why is this what we’re debating when the country is being destroyed by pedophiles and billionaires?
Dignifying this “issue” with any stance is the wrong move.
Can’t have trans people thinking anyone is in their corner.
You can show your support for trans people while also not deigning to debate a super-specific issue that affects so few people that the only point in debating it is to drive a wedge between people that should otherwise be united against a greater common enemy
Then he shouldn’t have taken a position. At least Harris kept embarrassed silence for ever having acted like trans people are human. Talarico ceded ground, and did so after the primary. Even Fetterman waited until after the election.
Because it keeps us occupied and out of the way.
Fence riders get splinters in their asses.
Surprise! DNC sells out another minority.
Good! NOW he Can get the “I want to KILL ALL DEMOCRATS!” vote while Alienating the “We REALLY WANT to Vote Democrat!” vote!
And now he will be purity tested out of existence, lettin paxton win. I bet he helps the trans community.
Yes don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. No one is perfect. I agree with Talarico on 90%+. Paxton less than 10.
This is fresh betrayal, after the primaries so we’re stuck with him.
Well, it’s not betrayal for you.
That’s not how this works. The way it works is that the Democrats triangulate to make their position more palatable to racists, homophobes, and Christian nationalists and then they lose their base who knows better than the candidates that the far right will never vote for a D and triangulating just continues to repeat dangerous lies that the extreme right use to justify their violence. We need more full-voiced opposition to the right with strategic approaches to the middle, not tactical capitulation that reveals just how hollow and weak the candidates who claim allyship are.
I bet you Talarico is in favor of weight classes in boxing. Does that mean he goes around saying “I am opposed to fat people in sports when it effects safety and fairness”. No. Because it’s not a political issue. It’s a technical and professional one that’s already being addressed and he doesn’t need to go in and make fat people unsafe by saying he opposes them and thinks they are unsafe and are unfair.
I wonder if it’s the same fairness issue that forbids women to compete with men on the shooting range for outperforming the latter
In pretty much every case there is no risk to safety or fairness. The best the right can come up with is anecdotes.
Well, you’re not a real Democrat until you become explicit about your cowardice.
The entire idea of sports is against safety and fairness. Might as well stay in a padded room all your life.
Unfortunately, hes still the lesser of evils.
Paxton is a legitimate monster
No arguments here.
And thus evil marches ever forward .
It’s so over-the-top to call that stance “evil”…
What do you call it when someone throws a tiny persecuted minority under the bus over a non-issue?
Centrists call it a good start.
All he said is that it “needs to be fair”, and that is so obvious it almost goes without saying. Sports do need to be fair; it’s why even Men’s sports sometimes have weight classes. Like it or not, his answer is reasonable.
And, yes, it’s ridiculously melodramatic to call that “evil” or “being thrown under a bus”.
This entire topic of conversation is so stupidly hypothetical and hyperbolic, not to mention practically irrelevant to the job of a US Senator.
But of course, how could I forget that every 2 years people have to take the bait and start arguing over asinine culture war wedge issues while the rich and powerful fuck us in the ass and rob us blind…?
It’s bait. It’s a non-issue and a fake problem. He fell for it. You fell for it. And I’m sure a bunch of dumbass Texan voters on both sides will fall for it too. Happens every time. Hook, line and sinker.
You fell for it.
Uhhh I was replying to you but okay I guess. Other comments have sufficiently explained why sports aren’t fair or safe so I won’t retread that but yes the real issue is that he took the bait and threw trans people under the bus for basically no reason.
His answer is not reasonable in the slightest because he also implied that there are situations where transgender participation is ‘unsafe’, perpetuating the false and transphobic stereotype of transgender women being men trying to assault women.
It’s still a fake non-issue. I used to fall for the anti-trans propaganda because I do watch and have participated in women’s contact sports, so I know how already inherently unsafe it is, and the only reason it does not matter is because the percentage of trans women in sports is negligible so it’s exceedingly unlikely to be a problem. It’s not a real issue that affects me or you, most likely, so there’s no point in engaging with the hypothetical at all. Trans people deserve human rights, respect, dignity, and privacy, and sports organizations and schools should figure out their own rules that work for their own communities.
It’s still a fake non-issue.
Even if minute in terms of the number of athletes affected, each person that cannot participate is being denied equal participation in society. More broadly, the same people pushing to ban transgender sports participation are seeking to remove transgender recognition from society as a whole.
Trans people deserve human rights, respect, dignity, and privacy, and sports organizations and schools should figure out their own rules that work for their own communities.
Letting local communities selectively deny transgender people equal rights is not acceptable. Civil rights are not something that should be optional. No school or sporting organization in any state should be discriminating against transgender individuals in any capacity with respect to their gender identity.
perpetuating the false and transphobic stereotype of transgender women being men trying to assault women.
That is not at all what was said or what was being implied…
Sports can be dangerous in and of themselves, which is why there is an entire field of sports medicine, as well as safety guildlines for just about every professional and amateur sports league that exists.
It’s not unreasonable to think that a circumstance could arise where two people of the same gender identity fall into radically different body weight/height classes. And in that circumstance it would not be safe or fair for those to people to compete. (This is why boxing, for example, is already broken up into weight classes.)
There’s always an excuse.
Trans people are less than one percent of the population. They are the absolute last thing making sports unfair.
I will concede that this issue is complicated.
However, I’d like to note that sport is fundamentally not “fair”, however you define it.
If it is supposed to be about “the person who does X best wins” there would not be gendered leagues or weight classes or doping regulations, and there would only be one champion per sport who would die of performance enhancement drug overdose shortly after winning.
If it is supposed to be about “everyone gets an equal chance at winning” it would be a lottery.
Fundamentally (“the purpose of the system is what it does”), professional sport is first and foremost about entertainment and not fairness. Humans like to watch other, more skilled/fit humans do stuff, this is why we have all those competitions in the first place. There needs to be a component of skill/effort and unpredictability for it to be an interesting competition to watch. The reason gendered leagues, weight classes, paralympics etc exist is for representation of those classes of people in this (very important) genre of entertainment. Which is awesome.
However, what becomes obvious is that by denying trans athletes the chance to compete with people of their gender, you are denying those trans people representation of their identity. I also understand that in this particular situation, allowing trans people to compete could take away representation from cis women which I understand and is a valid concern of a disadvantaged group. But (at least from my cis-male perspective, so take it with a grain of salt) it generally doesn’t, because there are very few transfem athletes, especially at professional sports levels, and years of transitioning generally take away enough of their performance for it to still be an interesting competition between AFAB women and AMAB women.
You consider anything that harms trans people to be good.
What an absolutely unhinged takeaway, not to mention a total straw man…
I do not trust anyone who celebrates abandoning vulnerable minorities.
And I do not care if you want to make ableist insults about it.
Well… Now that it’s so abundantly clear that you’re unwilling to discuss this in good faith, I think my part in this conversation is officially over.
“Good faith” means I should trust you after you support throwing trans people under the bus.
Because after all, they’re not netanyahu, so no centrist will ever give a shit about them.
That didnt stop the sitouts from sitting it out the last time. Just sayin.
